runnah's sure fire tips to getting good advice on equipment

[runnah]

If you follow these tips, your questions will be answered with speed and accuracy.

1. State your budget. Knowing how much you have to spend will allow people to accurately suggest equipment that is the best in your price range.

2. State what you have currently. This will allow for proper compatibility in the suggestions.

3. State your intentions. Taking photos of birds from a quarter mile away and photos of bugs require vastly different setups.

4. State your skill level. Don't be bashful, if you don't know what a function does or why you need something, ask away.

5. Do some research before hand. The Internet is a vast place full of somewhat accurate information. Come to the table with an educated question and save yourself and everyone else time and frustrations.

 

[MSnowy]

I like #5 the most. When I was thinking about getting into photography 4 years ago I did just that. I researched on the internet and was pointed to TFP for answers to my questions. So are you saying new people should leave get more info and then come back.

 

[table1349]

If you follow these tips, your questions will be answered with speed and accuracy.

1. State your budget. Knowing how much you have to spend will allow people to accurately suggest equipment that is the best in your price range.

2. State what you have currently. This will allow for proper comparability in the suggestions.

3. State your intentions. Taking photos of birds from a quarter mile away and photos of bugs require vastly different setups.

4. State your skill level. Don't be bashful, if you don't know what a function does or why you need something, ask away.

5. Do some research before hand. The Internet is a vast place full of somewhat accurate information. Come to the table with an educated question and save yourself and everyone else time and frustrations.

Please if I may, let me reorganize those for you.

1. Do some research before hand. The Internet is a vast place full of somewhat accurate information. Come to the table with an educated question and save yourself and everyone else time and frustrations.

2. State your skill level. Don't be bashful, if you don't know what a function does or why you need something, ask away.

3. See #2.

4. State your intentions. Taking photos of birds from a quarter mile away and photos of bugs require vastly different setups.

5. State what you have currently. This will allow for proper comparability in the suggestions.

6. State your budget. Knowing how much you have to spend will allow people to accurately suggest equipment that is the best in your price range.

 

[manaheim]

This is awesome. Some moderator should make this a sticky.

 

[runnah]

This is awesome. Some moderator should make this a sticky.

If only we knew one.

 

[table1349]

This is awesome. Some moderator should make this a sticky.

 

[ratssass]

I,too,like 5 the best....move it to 1.The main problem I've ever had,is,how to craft a question.So,so,so many times have I asked a simple question here,that requires no background as to equipment,ability level,etc.I'm not saying that those background items aren't useful,but it seems they too often used to create an opinion,and then opinions are argued and all the OP wanted was a readers digest version.Is he/she headed in the direction to find the answer?Sometimes,small steps/little bites,encourages (at least me),further exploration.



LMAO..........MAYBE I SHOULD READ THE OP THREAD TITLE!!!!!........sorry,runnah......that applied to general questions...**slowly goes back under the bridge,with his fellow trolls**

 

[manaheim]

I'm just gonna go ahead and stick this and we'll see if I get in trouble for it later.

 

[table1349]

I'm just gonna go ahead and stick this and we'll see if I get in trouble for it later.

Well if you do send this to Terri from me.

 

[MSnowy]

In the minds of some, somehow, TPF doesn't qualify as "the internet", because people who come here asking what many see as ridiculously simple questions are routinely lambasted for not doing research on "the internet". Seems people would rather type out tomes of criticisms instead of a sentence or two to answer a simple question...

I liken it to showing up at a random car dealership and saying "I want a car". You'll get terrible service and end up walking away ripped off and disappointed. Show up to a dealership with a particular type of car with features you like and you'll have a better experience.

TPF is indeed on the Internet but it isn't google.

I don't think the owners of this forum or their paying supporters agree with this. I'm sure they're striving to be the number #1 search result on Google.

 

[table1349]

What...You mean if I show up at a car dealership and when they ask "what kind of car I am looking for" and I tell them "a white one" they won't know exactly what my wants and needs are. Well no wonder I felt disappointed and ripped off the last time I bought a vehicle. I wasn't sure I needed that custom built Mercedes Benz Pickup Truck for $190,000.00 but they said it came in white so I thought they knew what I needed.

 

[Steve5D]

In the minds of some, somehow, TPF doesn't qualify as "the internet", because people who come here asking what many see as ridiculously simple questions are routinely lambasted for not doing research on "the internet". Seems people would rather type out tomes of criticisms instead of a sentence or two to answer a simple question...

I liken it to showing up at a random car dealership and saying "I want a car". You'll get terrible service and end up walking away ripped off and disappointed. Show up to a dealership with a particular type of car with features you like and you'll have a better experience.

TPF is indeed on the Internet but it isn't google.

Well, if I was a complete neophyte who wanted to do some research on cameras, I might conclude that a photography forum would be a good place to start. So, I go to Google and type "photography forum" into the search block.

What do you think is the very first listing?

Yeah...

 

[Steve5D]

In the minds of some, somehow, TPF doesn't qualify as "the internet", because people who come here asking what many see as ridiculously simple questions are routinely lambasted for not doing research on "the internet". Seems people would rather type out tomes of criticisms instead of a sentence or two to answer a simple question...

I liken it to showing up at a random car dealership and saying "I want a car". You'll get terrible service and end up walking away ripped off and disappointed. Show up to a dealership with a particular type of car with features you like and you'll have a better experience.

TPF is indeed on the Internet but it isn't google.

It's nothing like that at all.

The car dealership wants to sell you something. TPF does not...

 

[manaheim]

Officially, TPF is all about helping folks so technically posts with zero up-front work are 100% okay and should be encouraged. There are also plenty of folks on here who haven't answered the same question a thousand times (and a few who are so patient that they don't care at the ten thousandth time) that it's really not a big deal.

That said... the user who puts a little work into reading a few things out on the internet will get a lot further quite a bit faster, because they will be able to ask some more specific and refined questions.

BTW, that reading on the internet includes the 40,000 threads on here about "what camera should I buy"... after all, TPF IS a part of the internet.

 

[manaheim]

In the minds of some, somehow, TPF doesn't qualify as "the internet", because people who come here asking what many see as ridiculously simple questions are routinely lambasted for not doing research on "the internet". Seems people would rather type out tomes of criticisms instead of a sentence or two to answer a simple question...

I liken it to showing up at a random car dealership and saying "I want a car". You'll get terrible service and end up walking away ripped off and disappointed. Show up to a dealership with a particular type of car with features you like and you'll have a better experience.

TPF is indeed on the Internet but it isn't google.

It's nothing like that at all.

The car dealership wants to sell you something. TPF does not...

Well, that's not entirely correct. There are ads. It's a business.